City Fears Being Left Out After The Cold War

October 18, 1988|By R.C. Longworth, Chicago Tribune.

BERLIN — This city, a relic and symbol of the Cold War, is beginning to fear that it may be left behind if the Cold War ends.

The fear has been reinforced by the Soviet rejection of a Western plea for a new deal for Berlin. The plea, inspired by a speech President Reagan gave here last year, called for more flights to Berlin and for holding the 2004 Olympic Games here, among other things.

``Nobody thinks the Soviet answer was a good answer,`` said Thomas de Maizere, head of the West Berlin city government`s political planning staff.

``But there`s a huge debate as to whether it was a bad answer or only a wait- and-see answer.

``There`s a concern,`` he said, ``that Berlin is being left out of the new East-West situation. ``(Soviet leader Mikhail) Gorbachev`s first priority is internal. His second priority is relations with the United States. His third priority is Asia.

``So he has other things to think about. Berlin is not even on his agenda.``

Reagan came to West Berlin in June, 1987, for the city`s 750th anniversary. In an emotional speech at the Berlin Wall, he challenged Gorbachev to pull the wall down and offered the Soviets four more short-range proposals:

- To create a major airport serving both East and West Berlin, with expanded flights to the city. At the moment, only airplanes from three Western powers-the United States, Britain and France-may fly into Berlin through the corridors established after World War II.

- To hold the 2004 Olympic Games in both sides of the city.

- To increase youth exchanges between East and West Berlin.

- To hold more major international conferences, including United Nations meetings, in both sides of the city.

The Western Allies wrapped these proposals into a ``Berlin Initiative``

and delivered it to Moscow last Dec. 29.

The Soviets answered Sept. 17. The answer is still secret, but German and Allied sources said it stuck to the Soviet line-that East Berlin is a separate city, the capital of a sovereign nation, the German Democratic Republic, and that the Soviet Union has no say over what happens there.

If the West wants to see any improvements in Berlin, it said, it must talk with the East Germans.

The West maintains that all of Berlin is occupied by the four Allied powers of World War II and that the Soviets have direct responsibility for East Berlin.

The note did suggest the possibility of talks on undefined subjects, and the U.S. plans to follow up. But for the moment Berlin remains, as it has for 43 years now, a city in waiting.

``Berlin is a great city, like Venice or Istanbul or Kyoto,`` remarked a well-traveled foreign resident here. He meant that it is a singular city, one of those special places so marked by history that it has a pulse and life all its own.

Surrounded by the wall, West Berlin has a claustrophobic air. Most Berliners never go near the wall, and numerous woods and parks give them plenty of breathing room; but there remains an island mentality, a sharp edge of excitement and suppressed anxiety that other cities don`t have.

West Berlin, with its traffic and fine clothes and lush shops, seems rich, especially in contrast to the still-threadbare society across the wall. Despite the contrasts and despite the Soviet insistence on the division, the two halves of Berlin cooperate on a maze of daily details.

West Berlin dumps its garbage in East Berlin. East Germany controls traffic on the rivers and canals through both halves. Much of West Berlin`s food and gasoline comes from the East, but it keeps supplies stockpiled in case the East Germans try to stop shipments.

The Western side of the wall these days is covered in graffiti, from ``Hi folks`` in English to ``The wall must come down`` in German to anti-Soviet slogans in Lithuanian, Hungarian, even Russian.

The West has built elevated stands so tourists can look into the East. From the East, watchtowers with one-way glass, like reflector sunglasses, look back. The wall is 12 feet high, with a protruding round cap to keep anyone from getting a handhold. It seems impossible to climb, but five people tried it last month. Two made it.

German and other non-American sources say the Berlin Initiative was flawed and the Soviet response was predictable. The initiative mixed proposals that are probably the province of the East Germans, such as youth exchanges, with those where the Soviet Union clearly has jurisdiction, such as air traffic.

``It would have been better to discuss this more,`` one source said.

``But it went out this way because of heavy American pressure, because Reagan was so emotionally involved.``

De Maziere and other Berlin officials hope that a gradual approach of improvements in both East and West Berlin may lead eventually to the razing of the wall. He knows it won`t happen tomorrow.

``My personal opinion,`` he says, ``is that my generation will see the wall come down.`` He is 34 years old.